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6/5/13

Angry Bird Paddles

Trevor and I are having so much fun planning his Angry Birds party! We are going to have a craft station at his party, where his guests will make one of these:

Not only is it cute, but it doubles as an awesome paddle for a game of Balloon Ping Pong!

Materials: red paper plates (cake size), tongue depressors, cardstock (black, red, yellow, white), scissors, and glue. We also used a hole punch to make the eyeballs.

I started by gluing the tongue depressors to the back of two plates and letting them dry. Trevor and I had a huge Balloon Ping Pong battle to test the strength of the glue; no matter how hard we hit or how aggressive we got, the glue held tight. I LOVE Martha Stewart Glittering Glue. If you use a different brand, test its strength ahead of time!

To make the face, cut the white paper into a tummy, following the curve of the plate then echoing the curve on the top. This was tricky for Trevor, but he managed without me stepping in. Cut two eyes. Use the black paper to cut two eyebrows, then punch 2 pupils. Cut two triangles to make the beak. Finally, cut a red feather. Glue everything in place.

After watching Trevor complete his Angry Bird paddle and seeing him struggle a bit, I decided that I will be providing tracers for his party guests. In general, I am against providing patterns to children. But for a birthday party where there will be lots of kids with a wide variety of crafting experience and skill, and not a lot of time to complete the craft, tracers are the way to go. That way, everyone can feel successful, whether they choose to use the tracers or not.